Tag: ACM

This week on the podcast, Dan dives into some advanced Puppet configuration to use with the DPK. Dan and Kyle discuss Hiera hash merging, using Puppet environments, and using the ACM with the DPK. Kyle talks about a bug with the Interaction Hub and My Favorites and some odd finds in PeopleBooks.

The PeopleSoft Cloud Architecture is built on two technologies: Deployment Packages (DPK) and Automated Configuration Management (ACM). On this site, we’ve talked about Deployment Packages quite a bit, but we haven’t discussed Automated Configuration Management. This post will introduce you to what the ACM is and how the DPK uses it.

Use Hiera to Turn ACM On/Off

In the past, I have created custom DPK roles without the DPK profiles that run the ACM. This was mostly to prevent ACM runs when we build a domain. It turns out that you can control the ACM (globally) with your psft_customizations.yaml file.

In the pt_tools_preboot_config and pt_tools_postboot_config profile, there is a Hiera lookup to see if ACM is enabled

$run_preboot_config_setup = hiera('run_preboot_config_setup', true)

or

$run_postboot_config_setup = hiera('run_postboot_config_setup', true)

If you haven’t defined these values, the default will be true. You can disable the ACM by adding this your psft_customizations.yaml:

run_preboot_config_setup: false
run_postboot_config_setup: false

There is a bug in the current DPK (8.55 and 8.56) if you set both values. In the modules/pt_profile/manifests/pt_tools_postboot_config.pp file, line 98 should be:

notify {"POST-Boot setup run is false":}

(Switch the message “PRE-Boot” to “POST-Boot”).

Building ACM Hiera Data

When the DPK runs Automated Configuration Management, it will take the plugins and properties you define in the psft_customizations.yaml file and build a template file on the fly. To define ACM steps to run, you’ll add hashes to one of two sections:

component_preboot_setup_list

component_postboot_setup_list

The labels are self-explanatory, but here is any easy way to know which plugs go in the post boot setup: If the setup requires IB to be running, it goes in post boot. That would include IB Configuration itself and Search Framework configuration.

Here is an example of setting up the Elasticsearch Search Instance via ACM. Unde the component_postboot_setup_list hash, we create a searching hash. (This name can be any string, but we’ll use that string later in the file). Then, we set the Run Control ID to use and the OS user who will run the App Engine.

Then we define the ACM Plugins we want to run. The acm_plugin_list is a hash of ACM Plugin names, and their repective configuration. To get a list of all the possible configuration, you can go into the PIA (PeopleTools > Automated Config Manager > ACM Templates > Template Definitions) and see the delivered ACM plugins.

Once you have filled out the plugin configuration vaules, and if you have multiple ACM hashes, you need to tell the DPK what order you want to execute the ACM plugins. You use the component_preboot_setup_list has to specify that order. Below, you’ll see we have 3 ACM sections we want to execute. These names are the hashes we created under the component_preboot_setup_list section.

This week, Kevin Antoff joins Dan and Kyle to recap the Reconnect 2017 conference. Kevin also discusses his experience with Elasticsearch and how Oracle is improving the tool in newer PeopleTools releases.

This week, Dan and Kyle talk about testing different web server configurations, using the ACM for Elasticsearch, and how mobile browsers work with websites. Then, they discuss different ways to promote yourself and your position to a boss or organization.

This week on the podcast, Kyle and Dan talk about Log Correlation fields, resetting SES security filters, and getting started with the ACM. Then they dig into storing attachments and searching attachments with SES and Elasticsearch.

This week on the podcast, Charlie Sinks joins us to talk about everything we learned at the Upper Midwest Regional User Group meeting. We talk about PeopleTools 8.56, changes in Lifecycle Management, Fluid adoption, Elasticsearch, Dan’s DPK session, and much more.

We want to make this podcast part of the community discussion on PeopleSoft administration. If you have comments, feedback, or topics you’d like us to talk about, we want to hear from you! You can email us at podcast@psadmin.io, tweet us at @psa_io, or use the Twitter hashtag #psadminpodcast.